How long did the Apuí fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2020 and 6 August 2020: 20 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,334 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Apuí (3,352 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Brazil (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

BR · Brazil · 2020-07-18 → 2020-08-06

Apuí fire, 18 July 2020 Apuí

Out · last detection 6 Aug 2020, 17:09 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2020 in Apuí, Brazil, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 373th largest in Amazonas since 2016 (of 450 with a page). Number 827 in Brazil in 2020, of 957.

Burnt area: 3,334ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 18 Jul 2020 – 6 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 18 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 236; in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 2.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 6 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul6 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222325262728293031123456

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high

39km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,814 ha in 2017, 1,758 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,419 ha that had burned before.

80 ha Apuí fire, July 2019 3,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Apuí 20,647 inhabitants where it started

3,352 ha reached on 18 Jul

0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
18 Jul	35.0 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Jul	35.6 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Jul	36.1 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
21 Jul	35.7 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
22 Jul	35.8 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
23 Jul	34.1 °C	39 %	22 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
24 Jul	36.1 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Jul	36.0 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
26 Jul	35.3 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Jul	36.2 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Jul	35.2 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Jul	36.2 °C	19 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Jul	36.7 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
31 Jul	38.0 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Aug	36.3 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Aug	35.4 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Aug	35.8 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Aug	36.6 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Aug	36.1 °C	27 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
6 Aug	36.1 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Aug after	35.2 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
8 Aug after	35.9 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
9 Aug after	35.5 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
10 Aug after	36.8 °C	25 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Aug after	36.2 °C	25 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
12 Aug after	36.6 °C	31 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
13 Aug after	36.3 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
14 Aug after	36.5 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
15 Aug after	35.1 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Aug after	36.9 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
17 Aug after	39.0 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Aug after	38.4 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Aug after	37.8 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Aug after	37.6 °C	27 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Aug after	30.9 °C	41 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 11 Jul 2020

After · 13 Aug 2020

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 236Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Brazil ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apuí fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2020 and 6 August 2020: 20 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,334 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Apuí (3,352 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Brazil (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 193

INPE · Programa Queimadas ↗
IBAMA · Prevfogo ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned